"And the inhabitant shall not say,I am sick;the people that shall dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity."In which words we have the place from whence salvation is to proceed,"Jerusalem,a quiet habitation";the eternity of it,"a tabernacle that shall not be taken down,"etc.;the Saviour of it,"the Lord,their judge,their lawgiver,their king,he will save us";the salvation,"the Lord shall be to them as a broad moat of swift waters,"etc.;the condition of their enemies,"their tacklings are loose,their masts weak,the lame shall take the spoil of them";the condition of the saved,"The inhabitant shall not say,Iam sick";and lastly,all this is comprehended in forgiveness of sin,"the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity."By which it is evident that salvation shall be on earth,then,when God shall reign,at the coming again of Christ,in Jerusalem;and from Jerusalem shall proceed the salvation of the Gentiles that shall be received into God's kingdom:as is also more expressly declared by the same prophet,"And they"(that is,the Gentiles who had any Jew in bondage)"shall bring all your brethren for an offering to the Lord,out of all nations,upon horses,and in chariots,and in litters,and upon mules,and upon swift beasts,to my holy mountain,Jerusalem,saith the Lord,as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord.And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites,saith the Lord":whereby it is manifest that the chief seat of God's kingdom,which is the place from whence the salvation of us that were Gentiles shall proceed,shall be Jerusalem:and the same is also confirmed by our Saviour,in his discourse with the woman of Samaria concerning the place of God's worship;to whom he saith that the Samaritans worshipped they knew not what,but the Jews worshipped what they knew,"for salvation is of the Jews"(ex Judaeis,that is,begins at the Jews):as if he should say,you worship God,but know not by whom He will save you,as we do,that know it shall be by one of the tribe of Judah;a Jew,not a Samaritan.And therefore also the woman not impertinently answered him again,"We know the Messias shall come."So that which our Saviour saith,"Salvation is from the Jews,:is the same that Paul says,"The gospel is the power of God to salvation to every one that believeth:to the Jew first,and also to the Greek.For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith";from the faith of the Jew to the faith of the Gentile.In the like sense the prophet Joel,describing the day of judgement,that God would "shew wonders in heaven,and in earth,blood,and fire,and pillars of smoke.The sun should be turned to darkness,and the moon into blood,before the great and terrible day of the Lord come."He addeth,"and it shall come to pass,that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be salvation."And Obadiah,verse 17,saith the same,"Upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance;and there shall be holiness,and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions,"that is,the possessions of the heathen,which possessions he expresseth more particularly in the following verses,by the mount of Esau,the land of the Philistines,the fields of Ephraim,of Samaria,Gilead,and the cities of the South,and concludes with these words,"the kingdom shall be the Lord's."All these places are for salvation,and the kingdom of God,after the day of judgement,upon earth.On the other side,I have not found any text that can probably be drawn to prove any ascension of the saints into heaven;that is to say,into any coelum empyreum,or other ethereal region,saving that it is called the kingdom of heaven:which name it may have because God,that was king of the Jews,governed them by His commands sent to Moses by angels from heaven;and after their revolt,sent His Son from heaven to reduce them to their obedience;and shall send him thence again to rule both them and all other faithful men from the day of judgement,everlastingly:or from that,that the throne of this our Great King is in heaven;whereas the earth is but His footstool.But that the subjects of God should have any place as high as His throne,or higher than His footstool,it seemeth not suitable to the dignity of a king,nor can I find any evident text for it in Holy Scripture.
From this that hath been said of the kingdom of God,and of salvation,it is not hard to interpret what is meant by the world to come.There are three worlds mentioned in the Scripture;the old world,the present world,and the world to come.Of the first,St.
Peter speaks,"If God spared not the old world,but saved Noah the eighth person,a preacher of righteousness,bringing the flood upon the world of the ungodly,"etc.So the first world was from Adam to the general flood.Of the present world,our Saviour speaks,"My kingdom is not of this world."For He came only to teach men the way of salvation,and to renew the kingdom of His Father by His doctrine.Of the world to come,St.Peter speaks,"Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new heavens,and a new earth."This is that world wherein Christ coming down from heaven in the clouds,with great power and glory,shall send His angels,and shall gather together his elect,from the four winds,and from the uttermost parts of the earth,and thenceforth reign over them,under his Father,everlastingly.
Salvation of a sinner supposeth a precedent redemption;for he that is once guilty of sin is obnoxious to the penalty of the same;and must pay,or some other for him,such ransom as he that is offended,and has him in his power,shall require.And seeing the person offended is Almighty God,in whose power are all things,such ransom is to be paid before salvation can be acquired,as God hath been pleased to require.By this ransom is not intended a satisfaction for sin equivalent to the offence,which no sinner for himself,nor righteous man can ever be able to make for another:the damage a man does to another he may make amends for by restitution or recompense,but sin cannot be taken away by recompense;for that were to make the liberty to sin a thing vendible.But sins may be pardoned to the repentant,either gratis or upon such penalty as God is pleased to accept.That which God usually accepted,in the Old Testament,was some sacrifice or oblation.To forgive sin is not an act of injustice,though the punishment have been threatened.Even amongst men,though the promise of good bind the promiser;yet threats,that is to say,promises of evil,bind them not;much less shall they bind God,who is infinitely more merciful than men.Our Saviour Christ therefore to redeem us did not in that sense satisfy for the sins of men,as that his death,of its own virtue,could make it unjust in God to punish sinners with eternal death;but did make that sacrifice and oblation of Himself,at His first coming,which God was pleased to require for the salvation at His second coming,of such as in the meantime should repent and believe in Him.And though this act of our redemption be not always in Scripture called a sacrifice and oblation,but sometimes a price;yet by price we are not to understand anything by the value whereof He could claim to a pardon for us from his offended Father;but that price which God the Father was pleased in mercy to demand.